For My Daughter
by Tiiulicious
Summary: She leaves everything behind in order to protect her daughter.
1. Chapter 1

This is my entry in to the color challenge. My color is gray and it will pop up many times during this story. This will be two parter and here is the first part.

Happy reading and please review. They always make me update sooner.

**Summary**: A woman is forced to leave her life behind to protect her daughter.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anyone expect Audrey, everyone else belongs to a lucky man called JJ Abrams

For My Daughter

Lauren Reed was determined to be a good mother. There was no other option in her mind. Her daughter was going to grow up in a house filled with love and laughter. That's why she needed to leave her husband behind and take up an offer she never before even considered taking. 

It was hard for her to stand in her bedroom decorated in the shades of gray, where potent memories of her marriage still lingered even after everything had been said and done. She remembered the day they had moved in and christened every room in the house by passionate lovemaking and not leaving their large, four-poster bed for the entire day.

She finished folding the final piece of clothing into a suitcase and sat in the comfortable gray armchair located in one of the corners. They had fought about this particular chair in the shop when buying furniture for their new home; he had wanted it and she didn't want that chair anywhere near her bedroom. He had won and gotten his wish to not only bringing in this chair but beddings that matched in color and material.

This room held many memories relating to the most important happenings in her life. She had learned that she had gotten promoted to field agent and also discovered she was pregnant. She wiped away tears and got up from the chair.

She took her suitcase and headed to the nursery next to her bedroom. This room was more colorful and less elegant than the room where she previously had been standing. There were large pink flowers painted in the white walls and toys had been left scattered everywhere. She remembered that day they had found out the sex of their baby and in the spot her husband had decided to fill her room with the largest pink flowers imaginable.

Lauren approached the crib where her daughter was sleeping peacefully. She was clutching her purple blanket with her left hand and pressing it tightly against herself.

The girl was an angel in the eyes of her mother. She had a curly blonde hair and aquamarine blue eyes that sparkled when her doting father played with her. At 13 months, Audrey Michelle Vaughn was a healthy, happy baby girl who knew nothing of the turmoil that surrounded her parents.

She stroked the baby's soft curls before starting to gather the most important things her daughter would need in the place where they were going. A large gray teddy bear that had been a present from her godfather Eric Weiss was the first thing she packed and later was joined by a doll given to her by her maternal grandmother.

After packing clothes, diapers, a few toys and silver picture frame with a photo taken on the day she had been born, Lauren carried the things to the car she had parked near the front door. Then she returned to the nursery to get the most precious thing in her life.

Lauren carefully lifted the sleeping girl to her arms and soothed her so she would not awake. Audrey didn't stir from the deep sleep she was currently in and Lauren was grateful of that.

With a final glance at the house, which had been her home for over two years now, she exited with her daughter in her arms. There was no returning now.

--

After getting everything in the car, Lauren felt tears burning in her eyes and didn't want to look at the house and the life she was leaving behind.

It broke her heart to have to leave him and their life together, but there was no other way to keep her daughter safe. Leaving him had to be the most difficult thing she had ever done in her life and she didn't fully know how she could continue her life when he wasn't part of it.

A ringing of her cell phone brought her out of the thoughts that made her cry. She checked the caller ID and found the number belonging to the man who was going to get her safely out of the country. She wiped her eyes and steadied her breathing before answering.

"I see you are already on your way here. Excellent, you didn't let me down. I was a little worried that you were going to act stupidly and call everything off at the last minute, but now I see that my fears were not necessary. I will see you in a few minutes, darling, so we can start our life together," The man's voice said in a cold, unnerving way that brought chills down her spine. She hated him, but beggars couldn't be choosers in her situation.

When push came to shove, she was willing to sacrifice her own happiness in order to project her daughter. It didn't matter that she would have to share the bed of a man who disgusted her from now on. All she cared about was making sure that her daughter didn't have to grow up seeing her mother labeled as a traitor by both the United States government and the Covenant which had been her primary employer for many years now.

She had reached a private airstrip where a magnificent Boeing business jet was waiting for her to board it. Her life as Lauren Reed, the loving wife of Michael Vaughn and loyal employee of the NSC and CIA had come to an end, she was now Mrs. Julian 'Sark' Lazarey to the world. She disliked him because he treated her like a piece of art that looked nice hanging on the wall and whose only purpose was to be a source of amusement for him. 

"Sweetheart, let me help you with your bags. You take the girl," Julian said opening the door of her car and helping the woman out of it. She followed his request by going to the other side of the car and carefully extracting her daughter out of it.

Lauren had to admit that Sark had provided nice surroundings for her and her daughter when she entered the private plane. There was a bedroom with stuffed animals everywhere and even a small white crib that remotely reminded the one she had at home. Lauren put Audrey in the crib and watched for a moment as the girl slept.

During that time, all her luggage had been brought to the plane and final arrangements were being made before the plane could take off to George Town, the capital of island paradise the Cayman's located in the Pacific Ocean near Jamaica, where they were going to be living from now on.

Lauren sat on to one of the luxurious seats in the main part of the plane and tried wrapping her head around the thought that this would be the final time she would ever set foot on American soil. As of right now, she was a fugitive.

"Now is time to turn that frown upside down. You are leaving the chains of the rules behind you and starting an adventure with me." Julian said behind her, kissing her neck and Lauren tried not to be disgusted.

"I'm not fully ready to leave everything: my husband, friends, family and generally things that mean the most to me. It will take time for me to get over him," Lauren said with honesty. She could have lied and told him what he wanted to hear, but she couldn't and wouldn't do that. She had perfected lying to an art form in recent years due to serving two very demanding masters at the same time, but didn't feel like boosting the enormous ego of Julian Sark by pandering to him.

"Why do you continue fooling yourself? You don't love Michael Vaughn and aside from Robert Lindsay, no one is going to miss you all that much. You married him because the covenant told you to do it, so don't make your relationship into the love story of the century, as we both know it isn't true." Julian fired back with brutal honestly. He didn't see any reason to sugar-coat the truth.

"You don't know how I felt or feel towards my husband, so don't go there. He is the father of my daughter and I will miss him so much. He will also miss Audrey, and me I'm sure of it." Lauren said surely without letting the doubt Sark had planted in her head to be heard in her voice.

"He will miss his daughter, but Sydney will take your place before the end of the year and it's already November. He stayed married to you because you got pregnant, not because he would have been in love with you. If baby Vaughn hadn't been born, he would have left you and even you can't be that stupid to not realize that." Julian said with boredom. He didn't want to ruin the start of their life together by discussing the CIA agent who still acted like a wall between the blonde woman and himself.

"Michael loved me and we were happy even after Sydney returned. We were a family and the only reason why I left him was that CIA were close to finding out that I worked for the covenant. I wish I could have told him the truth, he would have understood, I know it," Lauren said while standing up and heading to the room where her daughter was sleeping.

Julian grapped a hold of her hand and prevented Lauren from entering the bedroom. He forced her to sit on the couch next to him and didn't let go of his powerful grip even after hearing a soft yelp of pain exiting her mouth.

"You listen to me. Michael Vaughn would have thrown you in prison without further thought if he found out the truth. He would make sure that little girl of yours would never know who you are and would call Sydney Bristow mom. He would never save you, no matter how much want to believe that. I, on the other hand, I saved you and you should show a little more gratitude for it. You belong to me now and I will do something that perfect husband of yours never did: I will put you first and not after an ex-girlfriend." Julian said with his other hand caressing her softly cheek and making her look directly into his eyes.

Lauren did something unthinkable, she broke down and started crying while pressing her head on his shoulder. He let her cry and pulled her closer to him. It came as a surprise to him that she actually fell asleep in his arms. He looked at her closer and lifted her into his arms.

He carried her to the bedroom and put her down on the bed. He decided to curl up next to her to make the flight go faster. He pulled her close and wrapped his hand around Lauren, hoping that by the time she woke up, all the thoughts and misconceptions of her marriage would be replaced by thoughts of their future together.

--

Lauren woke up when she felt the plane making preparations to land. There was no way she had been sleeping for eight hours which was the typical flight time to the Cayman Islands. She quickly exited the bed and went to the crib where her daughter must still be sleeping. To Lauren's horror, the girl wasn't there.

She rushed out of the room in a desperate attempt to locate her infant daughter. She stopped in her tracks as she noticed the girl sitting peacefully in the lap of Julian who was pouncing her up and down. It was a strange vision to be honest, Sark didn't come across as someone who liked children or even tolerated them. But still, here he was with her daughter and didn't even look upset that she had gurgled on his black three-piece suit. The world was apparently full of surprises she hadn't even imagined. Julian Sark babysitting, what on earth was going to happen next?

To be continued... 


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

Michael Vaughn was sitting on the porch of his house and had been staring into nothingness for what seemed like hours, but in reality maybe an hour had passed since he first sat down. The thought of never seeing his daughter again was slowly, but surely sinking in and the pain was something he had never imagined, it cut deeply and felt unbearable.

The day had been as normal as every one of these days and nothing had given any indicator on the tragedy what was coming later. He had returned home a little later than he had told Lauren and fully expected to find Audrey playing with her toys and his wife either playing with her or cooking, but instead he found his home ransacked and filled with blood spatter with no sign of Lauren and Audrey. The blood was every where and a logical, CIA agent rationale told him that there was no way someone would survive after so much blood loss, but the father and husband side of him hoped and prayed that she would have been able to get away with their daughter and was now waiting for him to come and get them. He needed to believe that to survive the night.

Weiss, Nadia, Sydney, Jack, Dixon and even Marshall had turned up to console and offer support and love, but he didn't want to face any of them. If he let himself to be consoled, it would mean Lauren and Audrey were really gone and this wasn't all a bad dream he would awake from in the morning. 

"Vaughn, I think you should come inside, we've got something!" Weiss said, coming to the porch and disrupting his thoughts. Vaughn stood up immediately, hoping some kind of breakthrough, some kind of explanation for all of this had been found.

"This phone call came a couple of minutes ago, it's for you Agent Vaughn," Dixon said as Michael walked to the living room where forensic guys were taking samples and a command post had been set up. Dixon pressed a button and a familiar voice could be heard loud and clear.

"Well Mr. Vaughn, I suspect you are having quite a rough day. You must be asking to yourself are they dead and why would someone do this to your beloved family. The answers are simple, I wanted to make you suffer and believe me, and this is just the start. Your wife was a fighter, she never gave up no matter what I did to get her to break, you should be proud. She loved you so much to sacrifice her life for you, even thought you never loved her the way she should have been loved, it's a shame; she was one of a kind," said the calm and taunting voice of Sark.

"Listen to me you son of a bitch, where is my wife and daughter? I will kill you slowly and painfully if you've done anything to hurt them. There is no place on earth where you can hide from me if something has happened to my family," Michael yelled to the speaker in his most dangerous voice.

"I'm sure we'll meet again Mr. Vaughn. If you are a good, loyal boy scout, I might just tell you where they are so you can bury them with a little bit of dignity. I'll be in touch." Sark finished the call with a teasing promise of something that was never going to happen.

--

"Who were you talking to?" Lauren asked as she was soothing a crying Audrey inside the limousine, which had picked them up from the airport. He had stepped out for a minute to make a phone call, not telling her who he was calling.

"All in good time my darling. You don't need to worry about anything any more, I will take care of everything you might ever need." Sark said stepping inside the car and signaling the driver to start driving again.

"Don't patronize me, Sark. I will never be your damsel in distress; you need to get that. I was a double agent for the Covenant and CIA; I can take care of myself. Only reason why I came to you for help, is because of my daughter." Lauren said with righteous indignation that merely amused Sark.

"Where is your statue?" Sark said with a wink and took Audrey from her mother's arms, the girl calmed almost instantly, which bothered Lauren greatly.

"What statue? I don't want to play your games," Lauren fired back and watched as Sark placed her daughter in his lap without even thinking about it.

"I just thought that someone as high and mighty as you would have a statue built in their honor. Your attitude is very unattractive darling, remember I'm doing you a favor, not the other way around." Sark said in that very Sark-esque way that could disarm a person within minutes.

"Sorry that I'm not all-sunshine and happy thoughts. I left my husband today, in  
case you haven't noticed you selfish son of a bitch." Lauren huffed and took Audrey from Sark's lap. Too bad, the girl didn't like that one bit and started wailing in a manner that was unbearable.

"Shush, mommy's here. You don't need to cry, everything's fine," Lauren soothed her baby girl, who wasn't having any of it. She wanted to go back to Sark's arms and wasn't stopping until that happened.

"Give her to me, you're obviously not doing that right," Sark countered and smirked in quite a telling way when Audrey immediately stopped crying when he picked her up in his arms.

"If you wanna play nursemaid, go ahead. She's me and Michael's daughter, nothing is going to change that." Lauren commented and watched the slight twitch appear in the corner of his mouth. That had a hit a nerve and she was glad about that.

"She will grow up in this paradise island with me and you. Sweetheart, who do you think she will call dad when she's old enough to speak? I'm sure it's not your beloved Agent Boy Scout, who she won't recognize in a years time." Sark said with a certainty that Lauren didn't like. Audrey was her daughter, she was her responsibility and all decisions about her life would be made by her, without Sark's input.

They remained quiet until the limousine stopped in front of a large and beautiful beachfront property that was now their home. It was breathtaking, Lauren thought and the first time since making the decision to leave Michael, she felt like the end of the world hadn't arrived.

"I see you approve, I knew you would. You can take Audrey now, she's asleep." Sark said handing the sleeping girl to its mother. She followed Sark to the front door and the house was even more beautiful on the inside.

"This house is designed to fulfill every dream you've ever had. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a Jacuzzi tub in our master bedroom, Italian marble everywhere, 250ft of white sandy beach, a terrace overlooking the ocean with no pesky neighbors to bother us and a changing room for you equipped with a wall-length mirrors and a fridge," Sark explained studying Lauren's expression's closely. She didn't do that good of a job pretending to be indifferent.

"Come with me, I'll show you our bedroom and Audrey's. You can thank me for all of this later, when we are alone," Sark winked in a manner that Lauren didn't find all that sexy, it was more disturbing if anything.

Audrey's room was across the hall from their bedroom. It was the dream come true for any little girl: teddy bears, dolls, stuffed animals and a giant, gray arm chair, almost identical to the one Lauren had at home in her bedroom. That detail affected her strongly and she carefully put Audrey in her new crib and sat down on the chair.

"How did you know about the chair? You have never been at my house," Lauren asked when Julian Sark entered the room and was leaning casually against the doorframe.

"Because I know everything about you. I know you get all weepy for a gray armchair, because it was the first piece of furniture you and Agent Courageous bought for your home. I also know that you love Cherries Jubilee ice cream, figure skating, Roederer Cristal champagne and your daughter," Sark said as if it was normal for someone to know things about her that Michael would have trouble knowing.

"Let's go see our room," Sark said and gestured the blonde woman to follow him which she did. The room was specious, with a large mahogany four-poster bed that was the centerpiece of the room and huge windows with an ocean view. There was two doors in the room, one took you to the bathroom with Italian tile and a Jacuzzi while the other to Lauren's spectacular changing room filled with priceless couture.

"I took the liberty to order clothes that you'll need here. You can't wear black or mousy CIA suits, so in my estimations that doesn't leave anything suitable in your closet." Sark sneered, taking a pink summer dress from the hangar and dangling it in front of Lauren who didn't look impressed.

"I'd rather go naked than wear something like that. Besides what's wrong with black?" Lauren said taking the dress from Sark's hands and going to the nearest window where she threw the item unceremoniously out of the window.

"You are in the Bahamas honey; you will look more out of place than David Beckham in a library if you parade the beaches decked in all black. I'm sure I am in the majority when I say that you can gladly go nude, I won't complain." Sark winked to which Lauren responded with a unenthusiastic face and left the room. She moved swiftly and found herself standing in a magnificent terrace overlooking the ocean.

"This is for you. Wear it," Sark said placing a 4 carat, cushion shaped diamond ring in her hand. It looked like it had cost more than her and Michael's home. "Just take it. I have a certain reputation in the island and people will think you are my wife, this is what I would give to the woman I was marrying."

Lauren took the ring and removed the simple, golden band Michael had placed in her ring finger at their Virginia nuptials and put Julian's larger than life diamond in its place.

"It's just you, me and Audrey in a Paradise Island. We are a family, the kind that sticks up for each other. CIA isn't going to find you, I'll give you my world," Julian said placing his hand on her shoulder as they watched the sun set in silence.

The End

I'm already planning on writing a sequel called "Let Me Love You" which will take us to the lives of Sark, Lauren, Sydney and Vaughn a year after she left everything behind. Tell me guys what do you think. Should I write the sequal?


End file.
